Original subtitles

My name's Claire.

Claire Conway.

Marta and I were matched up by an IBM machine by a roommate service.

And although I was going to be a model, and she was a nurse and research

assistant in a hospital, they had us paired off right down to the last

Why, we even smoked the same kind of cigarettes.

In New York, why, just getting up in the morning is an adventure.

This is the story of one of those adventures.

An adventure that came as close to costing us our lives as a hound dog

a treed coon.

It was about the middle of July, and there was something in the air that

of us could understand.

Marta was a little testy, and I was kind of jumpy too.

Turn off that spooky music.

Oh, really?

Any particular reason?

I don't know. It just gives me the creeps this morning.

You know what I watched last night?

Two of those ghastly horror films.

I know nurses are supposed to be very reasonable people, but you know me.

Those things really give me the creeps.

Marta was really serious.

It surprised me.

There was something nervous and disturbed about her whole attitude.

I figured the best thing to do was try and get a laugh out of her.

I know exactly what you saw.

The monster from the hairy planet.

And Dracula meets the Beatles.

I was surprised that Marta was taking everything so seriously.

How could I possibly know that this wasn't just going to be another normal

at work for either of us?

Especially not for Marta at the hospital.

Ow! Ow!

That was strange.

Our cat had never scratched either of us before.

Were things going to start happening in threes the way they do when bad luck

sets in on your trail?

I visited Malta once in the hospital where she worked.

It was an incredible and creepy place.

The lab where she had to work was filled with thousands and thousands of rats

and mice and other animals that were constantly being experimented on.

They were always trying to shoot them full of chemicals and hormones and

like that.

Things that upset the delicate balance of nature.

It was unnatural.

The whole place.

I think both Malta and I had always felt that something bad was going to happen

up there someday, with all those half -crazy animals around with their sharp

little teeth.

Malta may have been a professional nurse, but this was one place in the

where she wished she didn't have to spend so much time.

My life, on the other hand, was totally different.

I was out in the romantic world of fashion photography, around

their assistants, like Laurie here.

She was only 21 and hadn't been around a lot of models like myself for very

long.

She seemed to get along fine with Ken, my friend who ran the studio.

Or at least I thought they got along fine.

How could I tell then that for Laurie, being seen undressed or in the nude was

big hang -up?

Us models, well, we just have to get used to it.

It had taken me a long time.

The way I got used to it?

Well, that's part of this story, too.

Here I was, out in the sun, making $50 an hour modeling, having the time

of my life, while across town, Marta was about to go through the worst

experience of her life.

Claire, there's a bathing suit in there.

It's topless.

It's topless?

Would you mind modeling it for a spread in one of the man's magazines?

It was funny, but Ken's question made me think for a second.

Then when I came out of the dressing room, Laurie gave me a strange look.

What's the matter, Laurie?

Does that shock you?

Wearing a topless bathing suit?

No.

It's, well, I can't imagine taking off my clothes in front of, well, anyone.

Anyone?

I do find it difficult.

Yes.

It had never occurred to me before that Ken and Laurie had some kind of trouble.

That night when I got home, you can imagine the shock that was waiting for

What's the matter, Marta?

Tell me, please, how about it? Remember this morning, the strange premonition of

danger I had?

Yes, I had that, too.

Oh, it's over now, baby.

Oh, the rock on top of me.

Oh, the window nearly fell down.

Oh, God.

Oh, it's just awful.

much, thanks.

I think what you need is a little rest.

I'm writing, Susanna.

I think that the week after next, we'll take a little vacation.

Camp Sunshine?

It was strange, me writing that letter that night to Susanna.

Why, only a year before, I had never heard of Camp Sunshine.

I'll never forget how surprised I was.

A little shocked and a little amused too when I first found out that my roommate

was a nudist.

I didn't even know what being a nudist meant.

When I found those magazines,

I couldn't believe there was such a thing as an organized nudist movement in

America. A place where people could actually go and take off their clothes

together outdoors.

I looked at them and had to laugh at the idea.

That wasn't for me.

That was for sure.

Are these your magazines?

Why, yes. Those are my nudist magazines.

They come through the mails?

Of course.

There are millions of nudists in the world.

They have their own camps, nudist beaches, places where they can get out

sun and away from all the prudes in the world.

You know, Claire, you're kind of a prude. I am?

How do you expect to get a break in modeling?

You're afraid to show your body.

I am.

Listen, I work in a hospital all day long.

And I work around sick bodies.

When I go to Camp Sunshine, it's to be around healthy bodies. Camp Sunshine?

It's a nudist camp run by a friend of mine upstate, Susanna York.

I've been meaning to ask you.

I had the intention of going up there this weekend, and I wondered if you...

want me to come along?

Would you?

No, thank you. I just couldn't. Oh, come on. I have nothing better to do and

nothing to lose.

Except my clothes.

Except your inhibitions.

Marta talked to me that night a year ago and told me more about nudism.

It was good, she said, to get to accept your own body and other people's.

And before I knew it, the weekend had rolled around and there we were on our

out to Camp Sunshine.

Suddenly, it all seemed so natural to feel the sun shining down all over my

body. It was gorgeous, an experience that thrilled me, that made me feel

alive for the first time.

Then, looking around, I saw somebody still wearing clothes.

Susanna explained that this was her half -brother, Hugo, a rather simple fellow

who served as the gardener at Camp Sunshine.

There was something about his looks that gave me a chill.

But Susanna told us that he was really very sweet, that he didn't have a mean

streak in him anywhere.

For the rest of that wonderful first day at the camp, I never thought of Hugo

again.

All I thought of was the sun, the fun that we had, and the pleasures of my

newfound way of life.

Marta. Marta, how are you? I just wanted to talk to you a minute.

I tried all kinds of experiments on the rats.

Those chemicals that were sitting on the shelf were... It was a million to one

shot.

Some combination of hormones, some combination of vicious substances that

made the animals vicious, inhuman. I don't think it could ever happen again.

I thank the...

Great surgeon in the sky that it happened to rats and didn't happen to

beings.

Thank the good Lord we've got scientific techniques to get rid of vile, vicious

substances like that.

And I got rid of them, all right. You can be sure of that.

knew nothing of the tragedy that had befallen poor Hugo.

We went about our normal daily activities, getting up each morning,

the hospital, and me to my modeling assignments.

We kept waiting for a letter to come from Susanna.

We found out later that her mind was so distracted by the accident that she had

forgotten to write us and tell us that she had closed the camp.

Each morning we looked for some word from her, and although there was no

from her, We suspected no trouble and went ahead with our plans to visit Camp

Sunshine the following week.

It was during that week before we went to Camp Sunshine that I called Ken and

told him that I would model the topless bathing suit.

is Claire.

How are you?

Listen, I just decided to model those topless bathing suits for you.

After all, I am a nudist.

You mean you go to a nudist camp and all that?

Yes, both Marta and I are.

Listen, the next time you're going out, can Laurie come?

I think it'd be good for her.

We're going away this weekend for a week.

Fine. See you tomorrow.

Bye.

Now that Ken knew about us both being nudists, I wondered if Marta had told

Harrison about us. They were becoming awfully close friends.

And in that week after the accident, while we were waiting to take our

they were practically inseparable.

Marta and Harrison, I believed.

were falling in love.

But for some reason, as Martha confided in me, she found herself unable to tell

him.

It would take an act of fate before Harrison visited Camp Sunshine.

Oh, my God.

Oh, there's a monster.

A monster?

It was an accident. Some chemicals in the water.

Chemicals in the water?

The chemicals?

We've got to get to a doctor. And fast.

Listen.

About all this.

Let's not tell the others.

It would spoil Claire's birthday party.

Harrison? I was just going to give you a buzz.

I think we just about worked out an antidote for those rats.

I'll be there in an hour.

No, sooner.

Yeah.

Huh. Oh, no, they're not.

A monster?

A monster?

In a nudist camp?

All right, let's go.

Thank you.

And that's all that's left of the monster of Camp Sunshine.